June 2, 2025 • 50 mins
In this powerful episode of Broken Brains with Bruce Parkman, host Bruce dives deep into the hidden wounds of war with U.S. Army veteran and mental health advocate Nicholas Allen. From a life-altering training accident to living with traumatic brain injury (TBI), Nicholas shares his raw, unfiltered journey through pain, purpose, and personal growth.
You’ll hear firsthand about the long-term effects of repetitive brain trauma, the barriers veterans face in seeking care, and the cultural stigma that prevents many from speaking up. Nicholas unpacks how alcohol became a temporary crutch—and how storytelling and service helped him reclaim his path. He also discusses his work with the Lesser Known Operators podcast and his impactful TEDx talk on resilience.
Together, Bruce and Nicholas tackle the urgent need for better TBI awareness, mental health advocacy, and veteran-centered innovation—from peer support to nonprofit impact and beyond.
👉 Don’t miss this eye-opening conversation about healing, courage, and the battle beyond the battlefield.
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Broken Brains with Bruce Parkman is sponsored by The Mac Parkman Foundation
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Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Repetitive Brain Trauma
02:26 Nicholas Allen's Journey to the Army
07:24 Experiencing TBI: The Training Accident
14:59 Navigating Military Support and Mental Health
21:12 Advocacy and Recovery Journey
22:59 The Weight of Sacrifice
24:21 Lesser Known Operators Podcast
27:13 Gaps in TBI Treatment
32:38 The Role of Nonprofits
35:58 Innovative Treatments for Mental Health
40:00 Nicholas Allen's TEDx Talk
43:52 Empowering Veterans Through Storytelling
https://www.mpfact.com/headsmart-app/
Follow Nicholas on social media and check out his podcast today!
Instagram: lesserknownoperators
Podcast: Lesser Known Operators
Produced by Security Halt Media
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Hey folks, welcome to another episode of Broken
Brains with your host, BruceParkman, sponsored by the Mack
Parkman Foundation, where welook at the issue of repetitive
brain trauma from repetitivehead impacts in contact sports
to repetitive blast explosionsin our military and veterans
community, and what these twoconditions are doing to the
(00:31):
brains and mental well-being ofour veterans, our kids and our
athletes.
And the concept of repetitivebrain trauma is not taught in
any medical, nursing orpsychological schools right now
and is literally the largestpreventable cause of mental
illness in this country.
So we reach out to parents,advocates, researchers,
scientists, authors, veterans togive you the 360-degree
(00:56):
perception of this condition,because you need to know about
it, because it's your brain,it's the brain of those that you
love, it's the brains of yourchildren, and these are all at
risk at this time because oursociety is not properly dealing
with this issue.
On our show today, anotheramazing guest and a veteran, Mr
Nicholas Allen, is a US Armyveteran and a former Green Beret
(01:18):
who spent eight years inspecial forces.
His military career wassignificantly impacted during a
training mission where hesustained multiple concussions
resulting in a TBI.
Despite this, Nick has remainedcommitted to supporting his
team, his mission and ourveteran community.
He spent eight years in theUnited States Army Special
Forces, which, we mentioned, isno easy task.
(01:40):
I've been there for 18 yearsmyself.
He continues to serve afterstaining multiple cushions and
being noticed with TBI.
He's an advocate for TBIawareness and veteran mental
health, which is absolutely whywe're here to talk about this
today, because TBIs andrepetitive blast exposure has
resulted in significant damageto our veteran population, which
(02:01):
has not until just now startedto be properly diagnosed.
He's delivered a TED Talk onresilience.
I want to know more about thatbecause that is absolutely cool.
It's one of my goals in lifeand navigating life setbacks.
He's been on the Half Percentpodcast series, Journey, and now
he's on the Mac Parkman BrokenBrains podcast.
(02:22):
We're going to send him out tothe universe, Nick.
Welcome to the show, man, andthank you so much for your
service, bro.
Really appreciate it, man,Thank you.
Thank you for having me on.
It's an honor.
Nah, man, Dude.
So tell us about Nick Allen man.
Where'd you start, Where'd yougrow up and how'd you end up?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
What convinced you to join the United States Army
Special Forces?
I know everybody says they havea weird path or a difficult
path, but I say that I'm fromthe first easy class of Special
Forces.
So I grew up in Antioch,illinois, and just a regular kid
living on a farm in the middleof fucking nowhere, normal
upbringing, just cornfield andsoybeans and that's it, nothing
(03:09):
exceptional.
Through high school, just anathlete.
And then, I guess you know, theworld fell apart in 2008, 2009.
We weren't building homesanymore.
Construction was starting toslow down.
So I got into bartending andthat's a really negative
feedback loop if you get intothat and you're partying and
(03:31):
drinking all the time.
So one day I woke up, went tothe recruiter's office and said
what do you got for me?
Unfortunately it was the Marinerecruiter and they said we
can't take you because you havetattoos.
So I walked out and said what'sthe hardest thing you got?
At the army, and they said wecan't take you because you have
tattoos.
So I walked out and said what'sthe hardest thing you got at
the Army, and they said well,you can't do that either because
you're kind of colorblind.
So I took whatever they had forme, which was field artillery,
(03:56):
multiple launch rocket systems,fire direction system specialist
, went to basic training and AITat Fort Sill and then, as
punishment for finishing at thetop of my class twice, I got
stationed at Fort Sill.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Yeah, that's punishment there, buddy it was.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
So on the car ride from AIT over to my unit, which
was only a couple blocks, Idecided I was going to go to
special forces selection as soonas I, as soon as I possibly
could.
I knew I was going to go atthat point, um, after having
some discussions with the cadreat AIT and my drill sergeant,
but uh, they sent us out to thefield and I got back and I went
(04:39):
to the brief at the library thatweek and 90 days later I was at
selection.
I hurt myself, hurt my knee.
I couldn't bend my leg anymoreduring land nav, so I got pulled
, trained up, went right back,passed that straight through the
(05:02):
course, got to my team inJanuary of 2015, first group,
and in April I got hurt in atraining accident on the ocean
and that was it.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
No more operational time April of 2015?
Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
So my bio might have been a little off there.
So I spent four years trying toget to group and then four
years in group.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Okay, cool man.
So what was your MOS?
18 Charlie, 18 charlie man.
So you were not all right.
So what kind of athlete wereyou?
Your contact sports guy orbaseball?
Speaker 2 (05:32):
or something like that would you play when I was
little it was whatever you coulddo baseball, soccer um.
It was wrestling, track andfield and wrestling as I got
into high school, it was justwrestling okay, so you're
wrestler.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Yeah, you look like a wrestler, and then you join
field artillery, which is morerepetitive blast, explosion and
then you become an explosivesguy.
Yeah and uh, and uh, as 18charlie, yeah good.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I never did my job in field artillery and never it up
.
Um, it turns out I was just acomputer guy.
It wasn't like you're shootingone, five, five rounds or
anything like that.
Uh, I say this all the time Ifyou're a high performer or good
at your job in the regular army,that means you're not going to
get to do your job.
You're going to go have to dowork in some office like S2 or
(06:21):
S3 or to be the commander'sdriver or something.
And that's what happened to me.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
I had to go sit in s2 because I knew how to type you
know that for uh, 20 years I hidthe fact that I knew how to
write.
But when I became a teamsergeant I could write all those
con apps so we could gettraining ammo and shit like that
.
But I never told anybody I knewhow to write because I watched
guys that knew how to type andthat's all they they did.
They just started doingPowerPoints for the team start
(06:46):
and all that stuff.
So, yeah, man, I was not doinggood.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
I don't remember anything from high school except
typing class.
That was my first hour freshmanyear and I learned more in that
class than I learned from therest of high school all combined
.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Yeah, well, that's why we go to high school, man,
we get out of it, you know,sooner or later.
What group were you assigned to?
Speaker 2 (07:11):
First group, first group, ah, okay, cool man man,
cool beans you ever make it outto Oki Just for some support
stuff when I was on the team.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So tell us about your uh, youknow, your tbi man, what
happened, dude.
So, uh, here's one thing Iwanted to bring up because, like
(07:32):
, I tell this, like I got hurtin the thing and then it's all a
piece together, like fishingstory at this point, of what
people have told me and thenwhat I remember.
So, disclaimer, this is what Iremember and if anybody out
there has more information, Iwould love to hear from you
because I skipped a bunch oftime after it happened.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
But you know, when you get older you say this is my
story and I'm sticking to it.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
So just so you know some of the guys are still in
and they're getting out now andI would love to have them on my
show to fill in all the gaps ofwhat actually happened.
Um, because it was prettyfucked.
It was kind of fucked up.
But so where you go out toAstoria, oregon, um, beautiful
place, very nice.
(08:17):
Um, we had 10 guys instead of12.
So we're down to and we're goingout and we're doing daylight
iterations of beach landing,seizure training.
That's kind of where everythingstarted to go wrong.
So we were out supposed to beout in three to five foot waves.
We were out in 12 to 15 footwaves.
(08:39):
Whoa, we were supposed to havethe 55 horsepower engines.
We had the 35 horsepowerengines.
We're supposed to have six guysin the boat engines.
We had the 35-horsepowerengines.
We were supposed to have sixguys in the boat.
We had five guys in the boatand we kicked out two rescue
swimmers in the surf instead ofpast the surf or before the surf
.
So while we're in the 12 to15-foot waves, we only had three
(09:02):
guys in the boat with anunderpowered engine.
So we kicked the guys out and assoon as we turned to go back
out to see, the boat went up alarge wave and uh, kind of like
ramped it into the air, like itwas oh yeah and uh, I was on the
front right of the boat of thezodiac and the comes back down
to the ocean floor, however farthat was, and I came back down
(09:22):
onto it, onto my face, uh, gotknocked out into the water.
They pulled me in.
I kind of come to medic on theengine says we're done, heading
back in um, and then we flippedover and, uh, so the engine's
hanging off of the lanyard steellanyard.
(09:43):
So we finally get the boatrighted and as I'm pulling the
lanyard up to set the engineback on, the transom wave washes
up, push the engine into myface, under my chin.
So we're counting that as kindof concussion too.
But it's only been like 20, 25minutes like that.
(10:03):
We couldn't, we were missionineffective.
So we got to the point where wewere just draped over the side
of the boat because we couldn'tflip it over anymore to get the
engine on.
We just would flip over andflip over.
So we did that all the way toshore.
An hour, two hours, somethinglike that.
And yeah, the medic grabs me.
I'm not all there, adrenaline'sstarting to wear off, and then
(10:28):
I kind of skip.
What kind of happens there?
But the main point is teamsergeant overruled.
The captain did not stoptraining, didn't send me home.
I was allowed to hurt myselfthe next day when I hit my head
on the doorframe of the TMP andthen fell and bounced my head
off the concrete.
So I would have been fine withthe first two, I really feel
(10:50):
like, but that one is the onewhere I started throwing up and
the pains in my head startedhappening, uh, and didn't go
away.
Um, I don't really remember,and that was in April.
I don't really remember toomuch until november.
So I kind of, when I think back,yeah, there's little pieces
there, but really startedbecoming clear again in november
(11:12):
when we started getting readyto go to korea.
So, um, hey, man, tie that inwith my several concussions
leading up to that.
Uh, seer, uh, selectioncombatives, basic training, all
either knocked out or close toit, hit as hard as possible.
(11:33):
The one in seer really alwaysbothers me because we were point
zero, zero, zero, zero, seconds, one second away from being
liberated and the fucking cadrejust hit me as hard as he could.
I was like God damn it.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Yeah, I used to be a seer instructor, but I never.
You know, we had strict rules.
Like you know, you don't comeout of left field.
I don't know.
We were, we, we, we ran areally tight school when I was
there.
That was back in 87, when nickrowe just left, and uh but it's
(12:09):
interesting how you got yourtbis, because I too am the
victim of a I got run over bythe boat.
I was actually uh, in a zodiacin panama and, uh, we were doing
riverine operations, werecoming in, not no, no, I mean, I
don't even know if I would getin a zodiac in 12 know, 12 to 15
foot swells, dude, that's crazy.
But we were rolling them in andon the way back out they had me
(12:31):
holding down the front of theboat because I was the new guy.
We were loaded up with a coupleof Puerto Rican National
Guardsmen.
We won and the guy did the samething.
He shot the motor at the wrongtime and we launched up the wave
.
But when we came on on theother side I got flipped out.
(12:52):
Then the boat ran me over andchopped me up and they had to
call a helicopter in for thatone, bro.
But yeah, man boats.
Ain't no joke, dude, because upthere where you're at, that's
where the Coast Guard does theirrollover drills, right?
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Yeah, yeah, right there at the mouth of the
Columbia, the Coast Guard,everybody does theirs.
Right there it's apparentlyvery dangerous.
I had a bad time so I considerit dangerous.
But, on the positive note, Iget a check on the first of
every month now and I'm afraidof the ocean, so I got that
going for me.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Yeah, yeah, as a matter of fact, I was putting
some chlorine in my pool andsince scuba school I still can't
smell chlorine without my bloodpressure going through the roof
.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
So yeah, man, I mean dude sorry to hear it, bro so
you did three more years on theteam, just sergeant major and
the commander saw something inme that they kind of took me
under their wing and I stayed onthe B team.
We went to Korea.
I did a good job, we got backand then I was able to go to
(13:51):
another second battalion, theCharlie company, that was going
back to Korea to do the samething.
So I was able to go hide out inKorea for eight more months.
This time we came back, I wentto battalion the battalion
Charlie, and when we came downon orders for Afghanistan my
(14:11):
deal to go live in Korea fellapart.
I was going to go over to takethe SOC Corps job and Sergeant
Major, I came into work one day,Sergeant Major had gone and my
deal kind of fell apart.
So I thought I was going to beable to stay in.
If I would have got over toKorea, I feel like I'd still be
in, but I still would have nevergone back to a team.
(14:33):
I'm a liability.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Okay, so what's going on?
I mean so obviously thisconcussion it wasn't just a
concussion, bro.
I mean if, uh, you know youwere severely impacted and not
and not allowed to, you know,deploy or go on, uh, uh, go back
to an A team.
So, um well, how was thesupport from the military in
your uh during this timeframethat we uh, were you getting the
(14:56):
right treatments at the TMC andthe hospital and stuff, bro?
Speaker 2 (15:02):
I could have.
I could have probably done that.
Um, I could have, I could haveprobably done that.
Most of it was trying to avoidthe people at the one clinic
because they wanted me to bemedically retired.
(15:22):
So real popular center overthere.
I had to do a different one andnothing came out of that.
The colonel at the end he saidyou know, all your scans look
fine, but that's the thing abouthead trauma is some of this
stuff we're not going to be ableto see until you're dead.
So, and concussions are weirdlike that.
(15:45):
You have all of theseconcussions and we're talking
about in the teens, includingchildhood and the military
service.
So just that last concussionset off these symptoms and they
really couldn't find anything.
But the symptoms aren't goingaway like and sometimes they'll
just pop up randomly, even stillnow.
And I haven't had a, haven'tbeen hit in the head severely in
(16:08):
10 years now.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
So, Roger, how about their impact on your mental
health?
Cause?
Usually I mean, they don't they, they, they usually go hand in
hand you don't have to talkabout I mean I, I talk openly
about, you know, falling apartabout three years ago and
putting myself back together,but you don't have to do it.
It's just that usually you knowthe impact of, you know these
(16:33):
conditions on mental health andwhere, where I'm getting that
man, is that usually thecorrelation?
When, when people arestruggling with mental health
and they've had a brain injury,nobody knows how to tie the two
together.
It's usually your mental healthcomes from being in combat,
some childhood trauma, whatever,and so they treat the mental
(17:01):
health separately from the brain, which means usually they
medicate you with all thesegreat pharmaceutical drugs that
you don't need, and then theydon't treat the brain with a lot
of the modalities and processesthat are out there in order to
heal the cause of the mentalillness or the cause of some of
the pain that you're havingright now.
I mean, have you, um, you?
Speaker 2 (17:15):
know I'm pretty good.
I'm pretty good now and Iwasn't pausing to say if I want
to talk about I'm trying tostart my my train of thought on
that.
Um, because I firmly believethat the mental health crisis in
the military is this three haslike three heads.
(17:39):
Right, we've got undiagnosedtraumatic brain injury problems
at home and then treatingeverything with alcohol.
And now I'm having to rethinkthat because the guest I had on
earlier this week, dr Bosley,and he's telling me he's like
well, you take the traumaticbrain injury and that's on the
(18:01):
same line as untreated hormonedisorders, so you could have
those two playing against eachother.
Then you mix in the drinking,then you mix in the family
problems and that's a recipe fordisaster.
So I'm trying to come up with abetter analogy for that.
But the drinking culture in themilitary is entrenched and then
(18:26):
, as you know, in special forceswe are the best at our jobs and
drinking is one of those jobs.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
I was pretty good at it.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Yeah right.
For a long time Green beretswith a beer in our hand.
So we're doing that hand, sowe're doing that if something's
wrong at home or something'swrong, but we can keep the team
life.
That's our beacon, that we'rewe're we're holding on to, and
we can put everything at baywith drinking.
Um, we're going to do that.
The px is always open, you know, it's 24 hour, one on post.
(18:58):
They'll always sell you morebooze and as long as you're
going at your job, you willsucceed.
And I went down that road andit got to be too much about a
year ago, a little over a yearago.
I don't drink anymore.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
One day I just wasn't able to.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
I just couldn't be any semblance of a good person
when I was drinking anymore.
So I'm completely sober now.
When I was drinking anymore, soI'm completely sober now.
But I was angry, unexpectedlyangry, would get vertigo at
weird times.
I would just come and go.
That one kind of is stillaround and it'll just happen
(19:38):
occasionally.
It's not as bad, just like moodswings, even like uh, kind of
you know said Zodiacs, if I get.
I noticed once if I got aroundto Zodiac like I, I like started
getting sweaty.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
I'm like this is a real, this is a real thing,
that's a real thing.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Yeah, um, I thought all that shit was fake.
But no, no, but no, no, fuck,no Changed my perspective on
things.
But I've got yeah, I have ajoke about it, you know and the
processing power and like thememory and everything I tell
people I used to be really,really, really smart and now I'm
(20:18):
just a genius, but that's likeeverybody at Group Smart.
And then when, kind of when Igot back into the team life, I'm
like something's missing.
I don't feel like I'm everybodyelse anymore after that and I
don't know if I ever got back tothat.
So a lot of things come alongwith it.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
And so tell us about your advocacy, man.
Obviously you got hurt, right,and that's impacted your life,
and so how did you get back ontop?
I mean, I know that when we dosuffer from mental illness
personally, for me it's a pitman.
It's hard to see a way out,it's hard to see a light, it's
(21:03):
dark all the time, time, and wefind ways to cope and they're
never enough.
And so, um, you know, how didyou, how did you find your way
out, man?
So how'd you get up here?
Speaker 2 (21:15):
I guess I'm still climbing Um, but the big one was
last April when I stoppeddrinking.
Um, that was that, was it.
If, uh, if anybody's listeningand they're lying to themselves
that that's not the problem, itis.
If you have any inkling thatthat's the problem.
Especially if you're havingsymptoms related to TBI, that is
(21:42):
one of the major contributingfactors.
So that was the big one.
I got out.
I was unhappy about getting medboarded and I just dealt with
it poorly.
Med boarded and I just dealtwith it poorly.
So kind of trying to find myway with the Green Beret
Foundation and saying what can Ido to help you guys or just be
(22:02):
part of what you guys are doing?
And that the back of my mind,and now it's become more of me
developing into.
What I want to do now ishelping special operations
veterans in the same way thatsergeant major and the commander
(22:22):
helped me.
They didn't have to do that atsaved my life, because losing
you know getting off the team isdevastating, uh, when you're,
(22:45):
when you're done with it, but tojust get there and then you're
never going back to the team, umwas everything I spent four or
five years.
That's.
All I was doing was trying tobecome a green beret, and then I
lost it.
Um, I still was able to do it,but in a support role.
But being on team guy andlosing some of those
opportunities, yeah, yeah, notnot the same man and uh, and
(23:08):
it's.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
It's hard to hear.
You know stories like thatbecause you know you put so much
work into it.
Right, you put you can'tcontrol accidents.
You know you can't control.
You know that's what training'sall about.
We train harder than anybody inthe world, bro.
You know that's it.
And we train real.
I mean you're out there and youknow you can't control the
weather in combat.
So I mean you jumped into thosebig-ass waves and then you got
(23:35):
injured and it ended your careerafter all that hard work and
it's.
You know.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Yeah, I can't imagine , I don't regret anything,
though I wouldn't change afucking thing because of where I
am now.
I got the beret.
I always have it and I feellike I have friends that I've
made the last lifetime fromgroup and everything.
I feel like I'm well-respectedand now that I'm trying to do
(24:01):
what I'm trying to do is with myshow and the jobs I'm trying to
get into is help people in theway that I was helped, and I
just think we are some of thebaddest motherfuckers on the
planet and special operations,soldiers or whatever branch that
you were in, and that's all Iwant to do, that's that's all I
(24:25):
think about.
Tell us about your show man,what you got going on, so let's
meet.
I uh, my podcast is calledlesser known operators Love it.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
That's probably 95% of us.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
I think it's probably higher than that, because
there's only a few guys thatconsistently make the news and
there's a hundred and somethousand.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Yeah, we don't write books, we don't go into movies,
man.
So I think, yeah, most of usare less than I love the name,
by the way.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
That's awesome it makes me very happy that you
like that right away because Iwas talking to somebody last
night and he goes yeah, thehardest name for the show was
coming up, or was hardest thingfor the show was coming up with
the name.
I was like man, I got bad newsfor you.
I spent nine seconds on my name.
It just was the first idea.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
And I went oh.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
I guess we're done Okay.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
So what do you?
What do you focus on on yourshow man?
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Special operations, guys or gals and their stories.
So started with my friends, um,and the more I interview people,
the more it changes how I feelabout my service and the
commitment I had and what I wasable to accomplish.
And then I just love talking tothe people and the challenge of
(25:50):
pulling out their story so thatthey enjoy the experience and
that I enjoy speaking to themand people want to listen to it.
I don't have any experienceinterviewing people, but
everybody comes on seems to likeit and it's all about the guest
.
I have you on and I want totalk about your story and
special operations and life thatcomes along with it and how
(26:12):
that affected you and what ithas turned you into now, and
highlight the pitfalls that weall fall into because, as much
as we don't want to tellourselves that this is true,
there's a sacrifice to be madefor what we want to go
(26:32):
accomplish in our careers andhopefully the people that listen
to the show, that choose to goin those careers later, have
those things in mind and theycan mitigate some of those
downfalls that guys getthemselves into.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Ah, no doubt, man.
I mean, yeah, when I was asergeant major, I didn't care
how many mistakes you made as ateam sergeant, I didn't care.
As long as you didn a teamsergeant, I didn't care, as long
as you didn't make the samemistake twice.
Then you're learning.
But those mistakes are whateverybody needs to know about.
And so if you have a podcastoutlining stories, people listen
.
And then you say I ain'ttouching that stove, you already
(27:08):
touched it for me, right?
I ain't going there man.
So, yeah, good on you man, itfor me, right?
I ain't going there man.
So, yeah, good on you man.
That's awesome.
So, in your journey since yourincident and your recovery and
staying as long as you could inthe military right now, what do
you consider are the gaps in TBItreatment in terms of the
(27:33):
experience you went through andwhat needs to improve?
We deal a lot with veteransthat are looking at a lot of.
We meet a lot of veterans thathave had a lot of dealings with
VA, the medical clinic, themental society.
You know, at the Green BeretFoundation you guys support a
(27:55):
lot of very, very uniqueholistic treatments that are not
covered by the VA or covered byinsurance.
So where do you think the gapsare that we need to work on and
improve?
Speaker 2 (28:09):
I spoke to Sergeant Major Ritter the other day.
Shout out to Chuck Ritter.
He said we did this shittogether.
Right, the Army and me did allthis stuff together.
We were holding hands when wedid it, so we got to fix it
together and the Army needs touphold its end of the bargain.
(28:30):
That's part of it.
But when you get out, I learnedvery quickly that the VA and
the US military have never heardof one another.
So Fair enough, you knowexactly what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
I didn't go to the VA for 15 years.
They asked me where the hellhave you been?
Speaker 2 (28:47):
I was like I didn't think I needed it, so it's
there's.
You're going to a wholedifferent branch of the
government when you get out ofthe military and it's like, oh
well, we have to, you know, wehave to reassess you and all
this other shit.
If you're not medically retiredlike I was, um, that's, there's
a big gap and you, that's onthe user, us or the veteran to
(29:08):
do all that themselves, to sayhey, hey, I'm here, I need my
benefits.
Well, prove it.
Oh, fuck shit.
Let me go look through myrecords.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
So if you have them.
If you have them.
If you have them, I think a lotof my stuff.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
And if you're going to put that onus on the soldier
after they get out instead ofmaking them do it before they
get out.
Once they get out, there'snobody telling them what to do
every day.
There's no first sergeanthaving them form up, making them
do PT.
You know, everybody goes into aslump right when they get out
(29:42):
for nine months, whether if theyretire from the civilian world
or they get out of the military.
They're going to hit the lowpoint in like nine months and
then they're going to startsaying, oh, I got to figure my
shit out.
Unless they're going to startsaying, oh, I got to figure my
shit out, unless they square tosquare the fuck away, but still,
there's going to be some lagand then we, if you give them a
choice to do it on their own,that imposter syndrome is going
(30:03):
to creep into their mind.
It's going to be right thereand go.
I don't think I deserve thesebenefits because there's nobody
around them telling them yes,yes, you do.
It's just them getting in theirthoughts and saying, well,
there's people that are morefucked up than me, or that had
more combat tours than me, orhad this old story, or has lost
a leg or got blown up or thisand that, blah, blah, blah blah.
(30:24):
And they start comparingthemselves to others when they
should be saying no, I want Ishould get all of the benefits
that are owed to me from the VAto me, not to those people.
You can't compare yourself tothose people, so that's kind.
Of.
One thing that I see is guysget in their own head and say
they don't deserve it orsomebody deserves it more.
(30:45):
I don't know if you hear thatfrom people.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
No, when I walked in, they asked me where have you
been?
I go well, there's people thatneed it more.
And they go what are youtalking about?
You earned this.
I go look man, I retired before9-11.
Yes, I participated,participated too.
You know, I was on the groundin El Salvador for 15 months and
I literally took the firsttroops into Kosovo, which is
(31:10):
kind of a contingency operation,but and I did both invasions as
a contract that's what Godwanted me to say.
I got you, got guys out therethat need this place, and they
go.
No, you need it too.
And they dragged me in there.
I was really surprised.
This large African-Americanwoman goes Sergeant Major, you
get your ass over here right now.
And she dragged me in there.
(31:30):
She goes.
You have earned this.
And so, to your point.
You're right, there's a lot offolks out there.
You know, I felt that my stancewas justified.
You know, I'm not a 9-11 guyand that's where the real, to me
, the real fighting started.
And those are the guys andgirls that really need this.
And so, to your point.
Yeah, I think that goes onquite often.
(31:53):
What about documenting?
You bring up a good point Onyour way out of the military.
Nobody's really talking aboutthe VA and guiding you on how to
prep for it.
I mean, you go to any militaryschool.
You go to a prep school,usually SFAS for selection,
pre-scuba.
For SCUBA they chuck you out inHalo school.
(32:14):
But you know that, you know.
But there's usually somebodygiving you a hand when you do
these huge transitional steps inyour military career.
But nobody.
I don't.
I don't know if it's changed,but when it comes to the VA,
there's really not you're,you're, you're right when you're
out.
You got to go figure it out,you know, and so you know.
(32:34):
It'd be nice if somebody's youknow actively helping the guys
out a little bit more shout out.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Green beret foundation has been going and
doing transition seminars at thegroups, right, they've been
doing that more and that's great.
But we only make up, like this,much of the force, right?
So non-profits are filling inwhere the government should be
um, they're going to give themthe real information.
This is what you need to do to.
(33:02):
You need to fill out this block.
You need to say these things,you need to do these things.
That's great.
The big army is not affordedthat and that's 99 percent of
our forces, right, or 98 percentof our forces.
And you can see that when yousee memes posted up of units
going to ntc with soldiers inlike wheelchairs or have boots
(33:23):
on their feet like, oh, we got afull number.
These soldiers are not going tobe afforded the time to get out
of the army and fill that shitout correctly.
If they're doing that withtraining, then they're just a
number.
Um, is that?
Is that a problem that can befixed?
I don't know.
That's for some general todecide, but we did this together
and there's an obligation onthe military to fulfill that
(33:47):
obligation.
Because they know and as muchas they say they don't like the
people at NFL, they knew thoseconcussions were going to be a
problem later on down the roadand they didn't do anything
about it.
They know that sending peopleto combat for 20 years and
saying, hey, get in a firefight,and you're having to shoot off
20 Kral Gustavs and then firethe 50 Cal right after it when
(34:09):
your brain's fucked up, oryou're on the line as a 13 Bravo
pulling the string on a 155Howitzer over and over and over
again, that's some seriousoverpressure.
And then you're just going to,you know, string them along, and
then they get out of the armyand then they're really fucked
up and, like I said, they'llself-medicate, they'll get in
(34:34):
their own head and then it'llend in problems.
That's, I mean, we see it inthe headlines, right?
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Well, unfortunately, you know the issue that you're
talking about repetitive blastexposure is just coming to light
and those issues unfortunatelyresult in mental illness.
Right, that's the firstindicator we have that a brain's
been damaged.
Because you can't see insidethe brain, these kids don't get
assessed on their way out.
(34:58):
A lot of them have seensignificant combat, not just
once, multiple times.
They've trained for combat andour position on this is you know
, since 9-11, your generationhas either been in combat or
training on combat, and so theexposure to overpressure has
been relentless on these brains.
Yet it's not ever assessed atall.
(35:20):
Until you know, until you go tothe polytrauma and they'll
assess it and they'll are awareof it.
But then the treatments offeredpills and therapy do not cut it
.
And there's some therapies outthere EMDR, equine therapy, I
don't know, water, polo,whatever.
But let's talk about this as afoundation, the Greenbrae
Foundation.
(35:40):
We now know that there'sextensive modalities out there
the psychedelics, all theelectronic modalities,
transgranular magneticstimulation, photobiophedback,
vagus nerve stimulation, yada,yada, h5.
Then we have brainsupplementation, we have
outpatient procedures likestellate ganglion blocks.
So you know all of these rightnow.
(36:03):
If you go to VA for them,they're like ha, not FDA
approved.
We're not touching it.
And yet we got, you know, 22plus kids.
We all know people that are notlonger here.
They couldn't deal with itanymore, and so we know this is
the focus of our foundation.
This is a massive problem here.
What is the Green BeretFoundation?
And I know you're not speakingon behalf of the Green Beret
(36:24):
Foundation, but, uh, we do knowthat a lot of the VSOs are
helping veterans out with this.
So, uh, you know, if, if youguys, uh, you know what number
one as a veteran, you knowwhat's your opinion on all this
other stuff that we know candeal with this, which helps with
mental illness?
And then is, uh, you know, doesthe Green Beret Foundation
offer some support there sothese veterans know where they
(36:45):
could go if they're 18, orsupport guys?
Speaker 2 (36:49):
Oh, absolutely so.
Green Beret Foundation providesdirect support to Green Berets
and their families.
Unfortunately, due to a missionstatement, that's what we're
limited to, right Green Beretsand their families.
So if you are a Green Beret andyou need help, go to
greenberetfoundationorg.
Request help, fill out thelittle questionnaire and then,
(37:09):
based on what you answer, thoselet's say it's VSO, you need
help from a VSO.
They will reach out to you,schedule a meeting, contact, and
then you'll sign a couple offorms and they'll do everything
on your behalf to get you therating or the appointments and
or just help you give you advice.
As far as other things, I don'tlook too much into the other
(37:31):
foundations that are out there.
Just in the special operationscommunity I find if you are too
broad in your endeavors, thenyou're inundated by all of the
opportunities out there.
So I was a special operationsveteran.
I feel like I have aresponsibility to the guys.
I got hurt in a certain way,but not terribly right so where
(37:57):
I got to a point where I canrecover.
So I feel I have aresponsibility to stand up and
speak for the guys that eithercan't or won't.
And if I'm going to put myselfin that limelight, I better do a
fucking good job and if peoplereach out to me I will help them
get where they need to go.
Cool man.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Yeah, I am aware that there are other special
operations foundations, somethat support psychedelics
therapy, others won't touch itand that's cool.
It's.
Where do the veterans need togo for these different?
You know?
Number one they have to getassessed right.
That means we've got to getthem diagnosed and actually
we're having a town hall onrepetitive blast exposure
(38:36):
tomorrow, first one ever inTampa.
I'm speaking at it.
We're going to be talking,we're having a VA guy get up
there and say this is how youdocument, this is how you know
you've got your DD-214,.
You've got your combat tours,you've got your MOS.
Have you ever heard of a GBEV, ageneralized blast exposure
variable?
Okay, that's this calculationthat SOCOM paid for that can
(38:59):
tell you how many units of blastthat you've had.
The threshold for brain damage,according to the experts, is
200,000 units.
I did my calculation.
I put this on a spreadsheet.
I'm actually going to put thisout on the website.
I did my own calculation.
I'm a Cold War vet.
I was at 2 million.
We have guys coming out of ourspecial operations units at 16,
(39:20):
20, 34 million units and thefirst indicator that we have
that blast exposures impact thebrain is mental illness, much
like TBI, like you can have aTBI and you can have headaches,
you can have physiologicalsymptoms, but when it starts
emanating in mental healthissues you know, addiction, drug
abuse, violence, what all thatstuff then it's time to look a
(39:42):
little bit deeper at what we'redoing for the brain to heal the
brain.
The fact that you've recoveredis astounding and that's great,
and but I, you know, I know theGreen Beret Foundation.
I was one of the nine guys.
I got a picture back here, meand Harley Davis and Chris Setts
.
I donated the first $100,000 tothe foundation to get it going
(40:04):
with Aaron Anderson back in theday and we were very proud of
what.
We stood up and I'm glad to hearthat.
You know you guys arecontinuing on that place because
we have, you know we've got alot of special operations guys
out there that are hurting andyou know there's a litany of
special operations, foundationsthat have stood up to take its
place.
So the fact that you'respeaking out is awesome.
(40:26):
Man.
Tell me about this TED Talk,man, I heard you got it.
Looks like you got up there.
Where was that?
Was it a TEDx or a TED Talk?
It was a TEDx, nice.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
I went and did this kind of like veterans retreat
over the summer in 18, and we'rejust sitting around the fire.
I was still in the military atthe time, but I was getting in
the med board process and I justmentioned, you know, someday
I'd like to do a TEDx talk.
Just it's a goal, right?
A couple months later I'm outand one of the guys sitting
(41:00):
around the fire another GreenBeret says hey, man, I just had
to drop out of the TEDx event.
And they said asked if I couldfill it with another green beret
says hey, man, I just had todrop out of the tedx event, uh,
and they said asked if I couldfill it with another green beret
.
It's in three weeks.
Can you do it absolutely?
Speaker 1 (41:12):
absolutely I can do it.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Attitude man heck yeah, I can do that man I had
five single lines on a sheet, ona little note card paper, as my
outline.
That's all I I had and I said,yep, I can do it.
So I wrote the whole thing,memorized it and performed it
all in three weeks atMississippi State University.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
Good for you, man.
What was your subject?
What did you speak on TBI?
Speaker 2 (41:38):
resilience.
I just told my story.
I figured it would be theeasiest to memorize.
It was tough.
I figured it would be theeasiest to memorize.
It was tough.
I didn't know even how, becauseeverybody afterwards is like,
man, that's really cool and youknow, it just fell in my lap and
I just did it.
But looking back, I'm like thatwas really cool, like I got to
(42:00):
record a TEDx talk and I canalways put that up there.
But I go back and listen to itand I, I, if I did it now, I
would just have a different tone.
I'm a lot more relaxed, I'm alot more deliberate in what I
say.
But then you could just hearhow angry I was, that I was out
of the military.
You just hear it in my voice.
(42:21):
So it would be just a littlebit different today.
But I listened to it the otherday and I'm like got like
goosebumps.
I'm like I'm fired up right now.
God damn.
Speaker 1 (42:31):
Well, I'm here to tell you I've been retired 24
years and I still miss it, man,dream about it.
I miss the guys.
Um, you know it's uh, it's notthat.
You know I, I, you know I gotfriends, you know I and I got
some old buddies, man, I catchup with.
But that rapport it's.
(42:53):
You know, once you'veexperienced it it's hard to
build back up, but that's youknow.
The fact that you guys arereaching out and you're trying
to reach our veteran populationis amazing, because so many guys
got to understand that theyhave to talk, they have to speak
up, they have to let peopleknow that they're hurting,
because there is help, there ishope.
I mean, when it comes down totreating the brain.
Now, since my son passed awayjust four and a half years ago,
(43:15):
there are so many ways to treatthe brain that nobody even heard
of.
I mean, there's a revolution ofnon-pharmaceutical brain health
coming our way that can notonly help our guys in the
military you know brainoptimization and all that stuff
but can help them when they getout.
So thank you so much forspeaking up, speaking out.
We need more guys like you.
(43:37):
So, as we close, man, tellpeople what's coming up next for
Nicholas Allen.
Tell us what's going on, whatare you doing, what are you
going to do next?
And then how do people find youfor you?
Your foundation, your podcast,and then the Green Beret
Foundation.
Pump your chest, man, what yougot All right, I am Nicholas
Allen.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
Everything right now is circled around lesser known
operators.
You can find us on Instagram atlesser known operators, that's
it.
I just want to build that up.
And at the base of the show is,if you were a special
operations veteran no matter howbig the show gets or how
popular I get and what kind ofshow I'm doing at the time if
(44:20):
you get out and you send me amessage and you want to come on
the show, you will get on.
We will book an episode.
We will 100% record an episode.
I promise that that is the baseof the show and we'll come on.
You can come on and talk aboutwhatever you want.
That's what I want it to be forfor special operations veterans
to have a place they can cometalk and I'll talk to you about
(44:41):
whatever the fuck you want totalk about.
If you want to talk about yourwar stories or you want to talk
about your new business or yourbook or whatever, and you have a
hard time talking aboutyourself, I'll do it for you.
Speaker 1 (44:51):
So that's it All right.
Hey, I'll come on your show man, let's go.
I'll be a lesser known operatorman, I am.
Speaker 2 (45:00):
I'd love to have you on the show.
I do to have you on the show.
I do long episodes, man.
I do two and a half three hourepisodes and people like where'd
the time go?
Speaker 1 (45:09):
it's like see, it's fun when you uh the shit that I,
my journey is god's.
God has been all over this dudeman.
I can't even it's.
It's crazy.
But uh, the big thing is, Idon't want to go on for me, I
want to go on.
I made so many mistakes, I havebeen so many places where
people have not been in lifethat I've got just some
(45:33):
well-earned wisdom that I liketo pass on.
It ain't about me, it's neverabout me anymore.
It's about the Lord and thefact that there is a I have and
I have blown myself up.
I've been, you know.
It's just that I like helpingothers.
I gave a talk at 7 SpecialForces Group about working for
yourself, working for the man,and they loved it.
(45:54):
Man, it's like look, you don'tneed to be a defense contractor,
bro, you can run anything.
You know.
Pick a business, set of tittybars, gas stations, chinese food
you can run this.
You can be successful.
You don't, you know.
And we find out that a lot ofour young men coming out of
special forces and women, eventhough they've been in combat or
they've been through the worsttraining that the Army can throw
(46:16):
at them, they don't have theconfidence to step out and be an
entrepreneur and it is killingthis country because all these
unbelievable business leadersare not business leaders and I
think that can be changed.
I've you know, I've been there.
I'm on my eighth company, bro.
I mean, I've you know, I've, I,uh, and, and there's so much
there and it's you know, it's sorewarding working for yourself
(46:40):
and and I've blown them up too.
Don't worry, I've gotmulti-million dollar mistakes
that have, you know that,cauterize me to this day.
But anyways, enough about me.
But if you'd like to, you knowlove to come on and share,
because you know that's aservice and I do believe that
what you're doing back to youSorry about my diatribe there
it's your selfless service, dude, it's the fact that you're out
(47:06):
there helping others and that'sa virtue and it's a gift to this
world.
So keep on doing it, man.
It's a amazing, it's amazinggift.
Speaker 2 (47:11):
I fucked up a lot, you know like I fucked up a lot
and I just, and when I couldn'tbe in group anymore, I don't,
didn't have anything I wanted todo, and now I found this and
that's all I want to do.
It's all I think about ishelping special operations, guys
or gals and whatever they need,even if it's just my show or my
(47:33):
funny memes or my reels or likemy fitness stuff, like if it
inspires you just a little bit,and then that makes me feel so
good.
Or you're just commenting on mystuff, or it is nothing, or you
don't even follow me and youjust see it one time you go.
Oh, that's awesome.
It's just to be the example, toget people to get out of their
(47:53):
minds that they're silentprofessionals, not quiet
professionals.
You can do things tactfully.
If you don't think you need totalk about your experiences and
how awesome you are, then shutthe fuck up, get out of your
head and speak up and be proudof your accomplishments, and if
they can see me doing that, thenhopefully I'm an example for
them to do the same.
Speaker 1 (48:12):
I despise that quiet professionals term I cost us.
When that came out, you know, Idon't know where, I don't know
what rank I was.
I think I was in E7.
I'm like that stinks.
We're not supposed to be quietprofessionals, we're supposed to
be loud.
Green berets, dude man.
I mean, come on, let's go messit up.
You know it was quiet.
I always thought that was anofficer term man.
(48:33):
It's probably still on in OER.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
It's probably still on some of those OERs.
That's what we got promoted onthat one.
Speaker 1 (48:40):
But, nick, hey, thanks so much for coming on the
show man.
Your insight's been awesome.
Your service to the communityis great.
Dude, I can't thank you enoughand I wish you all the best on
your show man.
You keep that thing going.
Books another great episode,Thanks to Nick Allen, the Green
Beret Foundation coming up Justbecause I helped start it.
Man, I love the Green BeretFoundation.
Man, I've got to get back totouching them.
Don't forget free book, theonly book written by me for you
(49:05):
to not expose your kids tocontact sports.
We've got the book.
We've got the summit the onlybut yet second summit on
repetitive brain trauma is goingto be here in Tampa, hosted by
the Mac Park Foundation,September 2nd and 3rd.
And go to the Google and Applestore for our Head Smart app
(49:26):
Download on the phone.
It's the best concussionawareness app out there.
In fact, it's the only app outthere with information on
repetitive head impacts and howthey're impacting the people
that you love, and it comes witha free copy of the book Book,
book, book, book, book.
All right.
So, anyways, take care ofyourselves, Take care of the
people you love.
God bless you all and take careof those brains.
You only got one and it'severything that you're going to
(49:49):
be no-transcript.
Hey folks, welcome to another episode of Broken
Brains with your host, BruceParkman, sponsored by the Mack
Parkman Foundation, where welook at the issue of repetitive
brain trauma from repetitivehead impacts in contact sports
to repetitive blast explosionsin our military and veterans
community, and what these twoconditions are doing to the
(00:31):
brains and mental well-being ofour veterans, our kids and our
athletes.
And the concept of repetitivebrain trauma is not taught in
any medical, nursing orpsychological schools right now
and is literally the largestpreventable cause of mental
illness in this country.
So we reach out to parents,advocates, researchers,
scientists, authors, veterans togive you the 360-degree
(00:56):
perception of this condition,because you need to know about
it, because it's your brain,it's the brain of those that you
love, it's the brains of yourchildren, and these are all at
risk at this time because oursociety is not properly dealing
with this issue.
On our show today, anotheramazing guest and a veteran, Mr
Nicholas Allen, is a US Armyveteran and a former Green Beret
(01:18):
who spent eight years inspecial forces.
His military career wassignificantly impacted during a
training mission where hesustained multiple concussions
resulting in a TBI.
Despite this, Nick has remainedcommitted to supporting his
team, his mission and ourveteran community.
He spent eight years in theUnited States Army Special
Forces, which, we mentioned, isno easy task.
(01:40):
I've been there for 18 yearsmyself.
He continues to serve afterstaining multiple cushions and
being noticed with TBI.
He's an advocate for TBIawareness and veteran mental
health, which is absolutely whywe're here to talk about this
today, because TBIs andrepetitive blast exposure has
resulted in significant damageto our veteran population, which
(02:01):
has not until just now startedto be properly diagnosed.
He's delivered a TED Talk onresilience.
I want to know more about thatbecause that is absolutely cool.
It's one of my goals in lifeand navigating life setbacks.
He's been on the Half Percentpodcast series, Journey, and now
he's on the Mac Parkman BrokenBrains podcast.
(02:22):
We're going to send him out tothe universe, Nick.
Welcome to the show, man, andthank you so much for your
service, bro.
Really appreciate it, man,Thank you.
Thank you for having me on.
It's an honor.
Nah, man, Dude.
So tell us about Nick Allen man.
Where'd you start, Where'd yougrow up and how'd you end up?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
What convinced you to join the United States Army
Special Forces?
I know everybody says they havea weird path or a difficult
path, but I say that I'm fromthe first easy class of Special
Forces.
So I grew up in Antioch,illinois, and just a regular kid
living on a farm in the middleof fucking nowhere, normal
upbringing, just cornfield andsoybeans and that's it, nothing
(03:09):
exceptional.
Through high school, just anathlete.
And then, I guess you know, theworld fell apart in 2008, 2009.
We weren't building homesanymore.
Construction was starting toslow down.
So I got into bartending andthat's a really negative
feedback loop if you get intothat and you're partying and
(03:31):
drinking all the time.
So one day I woke up, went tothe recruiter's office and said
what do you got for me?
Unfortunately it was the Marinerecruiter and they said we
can't take you because you havetattoos.
So I walked out and said what'sthe hardest thing you got?
At the army, and they said wecan't take you because you have
tattoos.
So I walked out and said what'sthe hardest thing you got at
the Army, and they said well,you can't do that either because
you're kind of colorblind.
So I took whatever they had forme, which was field artillery,
(03:56):
multiple launch rocket systems,fire direction system specialist
, went to basic training and AITat Fort Sill and then, as
punishment for finishing at thetop of my class twice, I got
stationed at Fort Sill.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Yeah, that's punishment there, buddy it was.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
So on the car ride from AIT over to my unit, which
was only a couple blocks, Idecided I was going to go to
special forces selection as soonas I, as soon as I possibly
could.
I knew I was going to go atthat point, um, after having
some discussions with the cadreat AIT and my drill sergeant,
but uh, they sent us out to thefield and I got back and I went
(04:39):
to the brief at the library thatweek and 90 days later I was at
selection.
I hurt myself, hurt my knee.
I couldn't bend my leg anymoreduring land nav, so I got pulled
, trained up, went right back,passed that straight through the
(05:02):
course, got to my team inJanuary of 2015, first group,
and in April I got hurt in atraining accident on the ocean
and that was it.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
No more operational time April of 2015?
Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
So my bio might have been a little off there.
So I spent four years trying toget to group and then four
years in group.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Okay, cool man.
So what was your MOS?
18 Charlie, 18 charlie man.
So you were not all right.
So what kind of athlete wereyou?
Your contact sports guy orbaseball?
Speaker 2 (05:32):
or something like that would you play when I was
little it was whatever you coulddo baseball, soccer um.
It was wrestling, track andfield and wrestling as I got
into high school, it was justwrestling okay, so you're
wrestler.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Yeah, you look like a wrestler, and then you join
field artillery, which is morerepetitive blast, explosion and
then you become an explosivesguy.
Yeah and uh, and uh, as 18charlie, yeah good.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I never did my job in field artillery and never it up
.
Um, it turns out I was just acomputer guy.
It wasn't like you're shootingone, five, five rounds or
anything like that.
Uh, I say this all the time Ifyou're a high performer or good
at your job in the regular army,that means you're not going to
get to do your job.
You're going to go have to dowork in some office like S2 or
(06:21):
S3 or to be the commander'sdriver or something.
And that's what happened to me.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
I had to go sit in s2 because I knew how to type you
know that for uh, 20 years I hidthe fact that I knew how to
write.
But when I became a teamsergeant I could write all those
con apps so we could gettraining ammo and shit like that
.
But I never told anybody I knewhow to write because I watched
guys that knew how to type andthat's all they they did.
They just started doingPowerPoints for the team start
(06:46):
and all that stuff.
So, yeah, man, I was not doinggood.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
I don't remember anything from high school except
typing class.
That was my first hour freshmanyear and I learned more in that
class than I learned from therest of high school all combined
.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Yeah, well, that's why we go to high school, man,
we get out of it, you know,sooner or later.
What group were you assigned to?
Speaker 2 (07:11):
First group, first group, ah, okay, cool man man,
cool beans you ever make it outto Oki Just for some support
stuff when I was on the team.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So tell us about your uh, youknow, your tbi man, what
happened, dude.
So, uh, here's one thing Iwanted to bring up because, like
(07:32):
, I tell this, like I got hurtin the thing and then it's all a
piece together, like fishingstory at this point, of what
people have told me and thenwhat I remember.
So, disclaimer, this is what Iremember and if anybody out
there has more information, Iwould love to hear from you
because I skipped a bunch oftime after it happened.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
But you know, when you get older you say this is my
story and I'm sticking to it.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
So just so you know some of the guys are still in
and they're getting out now andI would love to have them on my
show to fill in all the gaps ofwhat actually happened.
Um, because it was prettyfucked.
It was kind of fucked up.
But so where you go out toAstoria, oregon, um, beautiful
place, very nice.
(08:17):
Um, we had 10 guys instead of12.
So we're down to and we're goingout and we're doing daylight
iterations of beach landing,seizure training.
That's kind of where everythingstarted to go wrong.
So we were out supposed to beout in three to five foot waves.
We were out in 12 to 15 footwaves.
(08:39):
Whoa, we were supposed to havethe 55 horsepower engines.
We had the 35 horsepowerengines.
We're supposed to have six guysin the boat engines.
We had the 35-horsepowerengines.
We were supposed to have sixguys in the boat.
We had five guys in the boatand we kicked out two rescue
swimmers in the surf instead ofpast the surf or before the surf
.
So while we're in the 12 to15-foot waves, we only had three
(09:02):
guys in the boat with anunderpowered engine.
So we kicked the guys out and assoon as we turned to go back
out to see, the boat went up alarge wave and uh, kind of like
ramped it into the air, like itwas oh yeah and uh, I was on the
front right of the boat of thezodiac and the comes back down
to the ocean floor, however farthat was, and I came back down
(09:22):
onto it, onto my face, uh, gotknocked out into the water.
They pulled me in.
I kind of come to medic on theengine says we're done, heading
back in um, and then we flippedover and, uh, so the engine's
hanging off of the lanyard steellanyard.
(09:43):
So we finally get the boatrighted and as I'm pulling the
lanyard up to set the engineback on, the transom wave washes
up, push the engine into myface, under my chin.
So we're counting that as kindof concussion too.
But it's only been like 20, 25minutes like that.
(10:03):
We couldn't, we were missionineffective.
So we got to the point where wewere just draped over the side
of the boat because we couldn'tflip it over anymore to get the
engine on.
We just would flip over andflip over.
So we did that all the way toshore.
An hour, two hours, somethinglike that.
And yeah, the medic grabs me.
I'm not all there, adrenaline'sstarting to wear off, and then
(10:28):
I kind of skip.
What kind of happens there?
But the main point is teamsergeant overruled.
The captain did not stoptraining, didn't send me home.
I was allowed to hurt myselfthe next day when I hit my head
on the doorframe of the TMP andthen fell and bounced my head
off the concrete.
So I would have been fine withthe first two, I really feel
(10:50):
like, but that one is the onewhere I started throwing up and
the pains in my head startedhappening, uh, and didn't go
away.
Um, I don't really remember,and that was in April.
I don't really remember toomuch until november.
So I kind of, when I think back,yeah, there's little pieces
there, but really startedbecoming clear again in november
(11:12):
when we started getting readyto go to korea.
So, um, hey, man, tie that inwith my several concussions
leading up to that.
Uh, seer, uh, selectioncombatives, basic training, all
either knocked out or close toit, hit as hard as possible.
(11:33):
The one in seer really alwaysbothers me because we were point
zero, zero, zero, zero, seconds, one second away from being
liberated and the fucking cadrejust hit me as hard as he could.
I was like God damn it.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Yeah, I used to be a seer instructor, but I never.
You know, we had strict rules.
Like you know, you don't comeout of left field.
I don't know.
We were, we, we, we ran areally tight school when I was
there.
That was back in 87, when nickrowe just left, and uh but it's
(12:09):
interesting how you got yourtbis, because I too am the
victim of a I got run over bythe boat.
I was actually uh, in a zodiacin panama and, uh, we were doing
riverine operations, werecoming in, not no, no, I mean, I
don't even know if I would getin a zodiac in 12 know, 12 to 15
foot swells, dude, that's crazy.
But we were rolling them in andon the way back out they had me
(12:31):
holding down the front of theboat because I was the new guy.
We were loaded up with a coupleof Puerto Rican National
Guardsmen.
We won and the guy did the samething.
He shot the motor at the wrongtime and we launched up the wave
.
But when we came on on theother side I got flipped out.
(12:52):
Then the boat ran me over andchopped me up and they had to
call a helicopter in for thatone, bro.
But yeah, man boats.
Ain't no joke, dude, because upthere where you're at, that's
where the Coast Guard does theirrollover drills, right?
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Yeah, yeah, right there at the mouth of the
Columbia, the Coast Guard,everybody does theirs.
Right there it's apparentlyvery dangerous.
I had a bad time so I considerit dangerous.
But, on the positive note, Iget a check on the first of
every month now and I'm afraidof the ocean, so I got that
going for me.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Yeah, yeah, as a matter of fact, I was putting
some chlorine in my pool andsince scuba school I still can't
smell chlorine without my bloodpressure going through the roof
.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
So yeah, man, I mean dude sorry to hear it, bro so
you did three more years on theteam, just sergeant major and
the commander saw something inme that they kind of took me
under their wing and I stayed onthe B team.
We went to Korea.
I did a good job, we got backand then I was able to go to
(13:51):
another second battalion, theCharlie company, that was going
back to Korea to do the samething.
So I was able to go hide out inKorea for eight more months.
This time we came back, I wentto battalion the battalion
Charlie, and when we came downon orders for Afghanistan my
(14:11):
deal to go live in Korea fellapart.
I was going to go over to takethe SOC Corps job and Sergeant
Major, I came into work one day,Sergeant Major had gone and my
deal kind of fell apart.
So I thought I was going to beable to stay in.
If I would have got over toKorea, I feel like I'd still be
in, but I still would have nevergone back to a team.
(14:33):
I'm a liability.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Okay, so what's going on?
I mean so obviously thisconcussion it wasn't just a
concussion, bro.
I mean if, uh, you know youwere severely impacted and not
and not allowed to, you know,deploy or go on, uh, uh, go back
to an A team.
So, um well, how was thesupport from the military in
your uh during this timeframethat we uh, were you getting the
(14:56):
right treatments at the TMC andthe hospital and stuff, bro?
Speaker 2 (15:02):
I could have.
I could have probably done that.
Um, I could have, I could haveprobably done that.
Most of it was trying to avoidthe people at the one clinic
because they wanted me to bemedically retired.
(15:22):
So real popular center overthere.
I had to do a different one andnothing came out of that.
The colonel at the end he saidyou know, all your scans look
fine, but that's the thing abouthead trauma is some of this
stuff we're not going to be ableto see until you're dead.
So, and concussions are weirdlike that.
(15:45):
You have all of theseconcussions and we're talking
about in the teens, includingchildhood and the military
service.
So just that last concussionset off these symptoms and they
really couldn't find anything.
But the symptoms aren't goingaway like and sometimes they'll
just pop up randomly, even stillnow.
And I haven't had a, haven'tbeen hit in the head severely in
(16:08):
10 years now.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
So, Roger, how about their impact on your mental
health?
Cause?
Usually I mean, they don't they, they, they usually go hand in
hand you don't have to talkabout I mean I, I talk openly
about, you know, falling apartabout three years ago and
putting myself back together,but you don't have to do it.
It's just that usually you knowthe impact of, you know these
(16:33):
conditions on mental health andwhere, where I'm getting that
man, is that usually thecorrelation?
When, when people arestruggling with mental health
and they've had a brain injury,nobody knows how to tie the two
together.
It's usually your mental healthcomes from being in combat,
some childhood trauma, whatever,and so they treat the mental
(17:01):
health separately from the brain, which means usually they
medicate you with all thesegreat pharmaceutical drugs that
you don't need, and then theydon't treat the brain with a lot
of the modalities and processesthat are out there in order to
heal the cause of the mentalillness or the cause of some of
the pain that you're havingright now.
I mean, have you, um, you?
Speaker 2 (17:15):
know I'm pretty good.
I'm pretty good now and Iwasn't pausing to say if I want
to talk about I'm trying tostart my my train of thought on
that.
Um, because I firmly believethat the mental health crisis in
the military is this three haslike three heads.
(17:39):
Right, we've got undiagnosedtraumatic brain injury problems
at home and then treatingeverything with alcohol.
And now I'm having to rethinkthat because the guest I had on
earlier this week, dr Bosley,and he's telling me he's like
well, you take the traumaticbrain injury and that's on the
(18:01):
same line as untreated hormonedisorders, so you could have
those two playing against eachother.
Then you mix in the drinking,then you mix in the family
problems and that's a recipe fordisaster.
So I'm trying to come up with abetter analogy for that.
But the drinking culture in themilitary is entrenched and then
(18:26):
, as you know, in special forceswe are the best at our jobs and
drinking is one of those jobs.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
I was pretty good at it.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Yeah right.
For a long time Green beretswith a beer in our hand.
So we're doing that hand, sowe're doing that if something's
wrong at home or something'swrong, but we can keep the team
life.
That's our beacon, that we'rewe're we're holding on to, and
we can put everything at baywith drinking.
Um, we're going to do that.
The px is always open, you know, it's 24 hour, one on post.
(18:58):
They'll always sell you morebooze and as long as you're
going at your job, you willsucceed.
And I went down that road andit got to be too much about a
year ago, a little over a yearago.
I don't drink anymore.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
One day I just wasn't able to.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
I just couldn't be any semblance of a good person
when I was drinking anymore.
So I'm completely sober now.
When I was drinking anymore, soI'm completely sober now.
But I was angry, unexpectedlyangry, would get vertigo at
weird times.
I would just come and go.
That one kind of is stillaround and it'll just happen
(19:38):
occasionally.
It's not as bad, just like moodswings, even like uh, kind of
you know said Zodiacs, if I get.
I noticed once if I got aroundto Zodiac like I, I like started
getting sweaty.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
I'm like this is a real, this is a real thing,
that's a real thing.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Yeah, um, I thought all that shit was fake.
But no, no, but no, no, fuck,no Changed my perspective on
things.
But I've got yeah, I have ajoke about it, you know and the
processing power and like thememory and everything I tell
people I used to be really,really, really smart and now I'm
(20:18):
just a genius, but that's likeeverybody at Group Smart.
And then when, kind of when Igot back into the team life, I'm
like something's missing.
I don't feel like I'm everybodyelse anymore after that and I
don't know if I ever got back tothat.
So a lot of things come alongwith it.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
And so tell us about your advocacy, man.
Obviously you got hurt, right,and that's impacted your life,
and so how did you get back ontop?
I mean, I know that when we dosuffer from mental illness
personally, for me it's a pitman.
It's hard to see a way out,it's hard to see a light, it's
(21:03):
dark all the time, time, and wefind ways to cope and they're
never enough.
And so, um, you know, how didyou, how did you find your way
out, man?
So how'd you get up here?
Speaker 2 (21:15):
I guess I'm still climbing Um, but the big one was
last April when I stoppeddrinking.
Um, that was that, was it.
If, uh, if anybody's listeningand they're lying to themselves
that that's not the problem, itis.
If you have any inkling thatthat's the problem.
Especially if you're havingsymptoms related to TBI, that is
(21:42):
one of the major contributingfactors.
So that was the big one.
I got out.
I was unhappy about getting medboarded and I just dealt with
it poorly.
Med boarded and I just dealtwith it poorly.
So kind of trying to find myway with the Green Beret
Foundation and saying what can Ido to help you guys or just be
(22:02):
part of what you guys are doing?
And that the back of my mind,and now it's become more of me
developing into.
What I want to do now ishelping special operations
veterans in the same way thatsergeant major and the commander
(22:22):
helped me.
They didn't have to do that atsaved my life, because losing
you know getting off the team isdevastating, uh, when you're,
(22:45):
when you're done with it, but tojust get there and then you're
never going back to the team, umwas everything I spent four or
five years.
That's.
All I was doing was trying tobecome a green beret, and then I
lost it.
Um, I still was able to do it,but in a support role.
But being on team guy andlosing some of those
opportunities, yeah, yeah, notnot the same man and uh, and
(23:08):
it's.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
It's hard to hear.
You know stories like thatbecause you know you put so much
work into it.
Right, you put you can'tcontrol accidents.
You know you can't control.
You know that's what training'sall about.
We train harder than anybody inthe world, bro.
You know that's it.
And we train real.
I mean you're out there and youknow you can't control the
weather in combat.
So I mean you jumped into thosebig-ass waves and then you got
(23:35):
injured and it ended your careerafter all that hard work and
it's.
You know.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Yeah, I can't imagine , I don't regret anything,
though I wouldn't change afucking thing because of where I
am now.
I got the beret.
I always have it and I feellike I have friends that I've
made the last lifetime fromgroup and everything.
I feel like I'm well-respectedand now that I'm trying to do
(24:01):
what I'm trying to do is with myshow and the jobs I'm trying to
get into is help people in theway that I was helped, and I
just think we are some of thebaddest motherfuckers on the
planet and special operations,soldiers or whatever branch that
you were in, and that's all Iwant to do, that's that's all I
(24:25):
think about.
Tell us about your show man,what you got going on, so let's
meet.
I uh, my podcast is calledlesser known operators Love it.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
That's probably 95% of us.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
I think it's probably higher than that, because
there's only a few guys thatconsistently make the news and
there's a hundred and somethousand.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Yeah, we don't write books, we don't go into movies,
man.
So I think, yeah, most of usare less than I love the name,
by the way.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
That's awesome it makes me very happy that you
like that right away because Iwas talking to somebody last
night and he goes yeah, thehardest name for the show was
coming up, or was hardest thingfor the show was coming up with
the name.
I was like man, I got bad newsfor you.
I spent nine seconds on my name.
It just was the first idea.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
And I went oh.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
I guess we're done Okay.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
So what do you?
What do you focus on on yourshow man?
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Special operations, guys or gals and their stories.
So started with my friends, um,and the more I interview people,
the more it changes how I feelabout my service and the
commitment I had and what I wasable to accomplish.
And then I just love talking tothe people and the challenge of
(25:50):
pulling out their story so thatthey enjoy the experience and
that I enjoy speaking to themand people want to listen to it.
I don't have any experienceinterviewing people, but
everybody comes on seems to likeit and it's all about the guest
.
I have you on and I want totalk about your story and
special operations and life thatcomes along with it and how
(26:12):
that affected you and what ithas turned you into now, and
highlight the pitfalls that weall fall into because, as much
as we don't want to tellourselves that this is true,
there's a sacrifice to be madefor what we want to go
(26:32):
accomplish in our careers andhopefully the people that listen
to the show, that choose to goin those careers later, have
those things in mind and theycan mitigate some of those
downfalls that guys getthemselves into.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Ah, no doubt, man.
I mean, yeah, when I was asergeant major, I didn't care
how many mistakes you made as ateam sergeant, I didn't care.
As long as you didn a teamsergeant, I didn't care, as long
as you didn't make the samemistake twice.
Then you're learning.
But those mistakes are whateverybody needs to know about.
And so if you have a podcastoutlining stories, people listen
.
And then you say I ain'ttouching that stove, you already
(27:08):
touched it for me, right?
I ain't going there man.
So, yeah, good on you man, itfor me, right?
I ain't going there man.
So, yeah, good on you man.
That's awesome.
So, in your journey since yourincident and your recovery and
staying as long as you could inthe military right now, what do
you consider are the gaps in TBItreatment in terms of the
(27:33):
experience you went through andwhat needs to improve?
We deal a lot with veteransthat are looking at a lot of.
We meet a lot of veterans thathave had a lot of dealings with
VA, the medical clinic, themental society.
You know, at the Green BeretFoundation you guys support a
(27:55):
lot of very, very uniqueholistic treatments that are not
covered by the VA or covered byinsurance.
So where do you think the gapsare that we need to work on and
improve?
Speaker 2 (28:09):
I spoke to Sergeant Major Ritter the other day.
Shout out to Chuck Ritter.
He said we did this shittogether.
Right, the Army and me did allthis stuff together.
We were holding hands when wedid it, so we got to fix it
together and the Army needs touphold its end of the bargain.
(28:30):
That's part of it.
But when you get out, I learnedvery quickly that the VA and
the US military have never heardof one another.
So Fair enough, you knowexactly what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
I didn't go to the VA for 15 years.
They asked me where the hellhave you been?
Speaker 2 (28:47):
I was like I didn't think I needed it, so it's
there's.
You're going to a wholedifferent branch of the
government when you get out ofthe military and it's like, oh
well, we have to, you know, wehave to reassess you and all
this other shit.
If you're not medically retiredlike I was, um, that's, there's
a big gap and you, that's onthe user, us or the veteran to
(29:08):
do all that themselves, to sayhey, hey, I'm here, I need my
benefits.
Well, prove it.
Oh, fuck shit.
Let me go look through myrecords.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
So if you have them.
If you have them.
If you have them, I think a lotof my stuff.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
And if you're going to put that onus on the soldier
after they get out instead ofmaking them do it before they
get out.
Once they get out, there'snobody telling them what to do
every day.
There's no first sergeanthaving them form up, making them
do PT.
You know, everybody goes into aslump right when they get out
(29:42):
for nine months, whether if theyretire from the civilian world
or they get out of the military.
They're going to hit the lowpoint in like nine months and
then they're going to startsaying, oh, I got to figure my
shit out.
Unless they're going to startsaying, oh, I got to figure my
shit out, unless they square tosquare the fuck away, but still,
there's going to be some lagand then we, if you give them a
choice to do it on their own,that imposter syndrome is going
(30:03):
to creep into their mind.
It's going to be right thereand go.
I don't think I deserve thesebenefits because there's nobody
around them telling them yes,yes, you do.
It's just them getting in theirthoughts and saying, well,
there's people that are morefucked up than me, or that had
more combat tours than me, orhad this old story, or has lost
a leg or got blown up or thisand that, blah, blah, blah blah.
(30:24):
And they start comparingthemselves to others when they
should be saying no, I want Ishould get all of the benefits
that are owed to me from the VAto me, not to those people.
You can't compare yourself tothose people, so that's kind.
Of.
One thing that I see is guysget in their own head and say
they don't deserve it orsomebody deserves it more.
(30:45):
I don't know if you hear thatfrom people.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
No, when I walked in, they asked me where have you
been?
I go well, there's people thatneed it more.
And they go what are youtalking about?
You earned this.
I go look man, I retired before9-11.
Yes, I participated,participated too.
You know, I was on the groundin El Salvador for 15 months and
I literally took the firsttroops into Kosovo, which is
(31:10):
kind of a contingency operation,but and I did both invasions as
a contract that's what Godwanted me to say.
I got you, got guys out therethat need this place, and they
go.
No, you need it too.
And they dragged me in there.
I was really surprised.
This large African-Americanwoman goes Sergeant Major, you
get your ass over here right now.
And she dragged me in there.
(31:30):
She goes.
You have earned this.
And so, to your point.
You're right, there's a lot offolks out there.
You know, I felt that my stancewas justified.
You know, I'm not a 9-11 guyand that's where the real, to me
, the real fighting started.
And those are the guys andgirls that really need this.
And so, to your point.
Yeah, I think that goes onquite often.
(31:53):
What about documenting?
You bring up a good point Onyour way out of the military.
Nobody's really talking aboutthe VA and guiding you on how to
prep for it.
I mean, you go to any militaryschool.
You go to a prep school,usually SFAS for selection,
pre-scuba.
For SCUBA they chuck you out inHalo school.
(32:14):
But you know that, you know.
But there's usually somebodygiving you a hand when you do
these huge transitional steps inyour military career.
But nobody.
I don't.
I don't know if it's changed,but when it comes to the VA,
there's really not you're,you're, you're right when you're
out.
You got to go figure it out,you know, and so you know.
(32:34):
It'd be nice if somebody's youknow actively helping the guys
out a little bit more shout out.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Green beret foundation has been going and
doing transition seminars at thegroups, right, they've been
doing that more and that's great.
But we only make up, like this,much of the force, right?
So non-profits are filling inwhere the government should be
um, they're going to give themthe real information.
This is what you need to do to.
(33:02):
You need to fill out this block.
You need to say these things,you need to do these things.
That's great.
The big army is not affordedthat and that's 99 percent of
our forces, right, or 98 percentof our forces.
And you can see that when yousee memes posted up of units
going to ntc with soldiers inlike wheelchairs or have boots
(33:23):
on their feet like, oh, we got afull number.
These soldiers are not going tobe afforded the time to get out
of the army and fill that shitout correctly.
If they're doing that withtraining, then they're just a
number.
Um, is that?
Is that a problem that can befixed?
I don't know.
That's for some general todecide, but we did this together
and there's an obligation onthe military to fulfill that
(33:47):
obligation.
Because they know and as muchas they say they don't like the
people at NFL, they knew thoseconcussions were going to be a
problem later on down the roadand they didn't do anything
about it.
They know that sending peopleto combat for 20 years and
saying, hey, get in a firefight,and you're having to shoot off
20 Kral Gustavs and then firethe 50 Cal right after it when
(34:09):
your brain's fucked up, oryou're on the line as a 13 Bravo
pulling the string on a 155Howitzer over and over and over
again, that's some seriousoverpressure.
And then you're just going to,you know, string them along, and
then they get out of the armyand then they're really fucked
up and, like I said, they'llself-medicate, they'll get in
(34:34):
their own head and then it'llend in problems.
That's, I mean, we see it inthe headlines, right?
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Well, unfortunately, you know the issue that you're
talking about repetitive blastexposure is just coming to light
and those issues unfortunatelyresult in mental illness.
Right, that's the firstindicator we have that a brain's
been damaged.
Because you can't see insidethe brain, these kids don't get
assessed on their way out.
(34:58):
A lot of them have seensignificant combat, not just
once, multiple times.
They've trained for combat andour position on this is you know
, since 9-11, your generationhas either been in combat or
training on combat, and so theexposure to overpressure has
been relentless on these brains.
Yet it's not ever assessed atall.
(35:20):
Until you know, until you go tothe polytrauma and they'll
assess it and they'll are awareof it.
But then the treatments offeredpills and therapy do not cut it
.
And there's some therapies outthere EMDR, equine therapy, I
don't know, water, polo,whatever.
But let's talk about this as afoundation, the Greenbrae
Foundation.
(35:40):
We now know that there'sextensive modalities out there
the psychedelics, all theelectronic modalities,
transgranular magneticstimulation, photobiophedback,
vagus nerve stimulation, yada,yada, h5.
Then we have brainsupplementation, we have
outpatient procedures likestellate ganglion blocks.
So you know all of these rightnow.
(36:03):
If you go to VA for them,they're like ha, not FDA
approved.
We're not touching it.
And yet we got, you know, 22plus kids.
We all know people that are notlonger here.
They couldn't deal with itanymore, and so we know this is
the focus of our foundation.
This is a massive problem here.
What is the Green BeretFoundation?
And I know you're not speakingon behalf of the Green Beret
(36:24):
Foundation, but, uh, we do knowthat a lot of the VSOs are
helping veterans out with this.
So, uh, you know, if, if youguys, uh, you know what number
one as a veteran, you knowwhat's your opinion on all this
other stuff that we know candeal with this, which helps with
mental illness?
And then is, uh, you know, doesthe Green Beret Foundation
offer some support there sothese veterans know where they
(36:45):
could go if they're 18, orsupport guys?
Speaker 2 (36:49):
Oh, absolutely so.
Green Beret Foundation providesdirect support to Green Berets
and their families.
Unfortunately, due to a missionstatement, that's what we're
limited to, right Green Beretsand their families.
So if you are a Green Beret andyou need help, go to
greenberetfoundationorg.
Request help, fill out thelittle questionnaire and then,
(37:09):
based on what you answer, thoselet's say it's VSO, you need
help from a VSO.
They will reach out to you,schedule a meeting, contact, and
then you'll sign a couple offorms and they'll do everything
on your behalf to get you therating or the appointments and
or just help you give you advice.
As far as other things, I don'tlook too much into the other
(37:31):
foundations that are out there.
Just in the special operationscommunity I find if you are too
broad in your endeavors, thenyou're inundated by all of the
opportunities out there.
So I was a special operationsveteran.
I feel like I have aresponsibility to the guys.
I got hurt in a certain way,but not terribly right so where
(37:57):
I got to a point where I canrecover.
So I feel I have aresponsibility to stand up and
speak for the guys that eithercan't or won't.
And if I'm going to put myselfin that limelight, I better do a
fucking good job and if peoplereach out to me I will help them
get where they need to go.
Cool man.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Yeah, I am aware that there are other special
operations foundations, somethat support psychedelics
therapy, others won't touch itand that's cool.
It's.
Where do the veterans need togo for these different?
You know?
Number one they have to getassessed right.
That means we've got to getthem diagnosed and actually
we're having a town hall onrepetitive blast exposure
(38:36):
tomorrow, first one ever inTampa.
I'm speaking at it.
We're going to be talking,we're having a VA guy get up
there and say this is how youdocument, this is how you know
you've got your DD-214,.
You've got your combat tours,you've got your MOS.
Have you ever heard of a GBEV, ageneralized blast exposure
variable?
Okay, that's this calculationthat SOCOM paid for that can
(38:59):
tell you how many units of blastthat you've had.
The threshold for brain damage,according to the experts, is
200,000 units.
I did my calculation.
I put this on a spreadsheet.
I'm actually going to put thisout on the website.
I did my own calculation.
I'm a Cold War vet.
I was at 2 million.
We have guys coming out of ourspecial operations units at 16,
(39:20):
20, 34 million units and thefirst indicator that we have
that blast exposures impact thebrain is mental illness, much
like TBI, like you can have aTBI and you can have headaches,
you can have physiologicalsymptoms, but when it starts
emanating in mental healthissues you know, addiction, drug
abuse, violence, what all thatstuff then it's time to look a
(39:42):
little bit deeper at what we'redoing for the brain to heal the
brain.
The fact that you've recoveredis astounding and that's great,
and but I, you know, I know theGreen Beret Foundation.
I was one of the nine guys.
I got a picture back here, meand Harley Davis and Chris Setts
.
I donated the first $100,000 tothe foundation to get it going
(40:04):
with Aaron Anderson back in theday and we were very proud of
what.
We stood up and I'm glad to hearthat.
You know you guys arecontinuing on that place because
we have, you know we've got alot of special operations guys
out there that are hurting andyou know there's a litany of
special operations, foundationsthat have stood up to take its
place.
So the fact that you'respeaking out is awesome.
(40:26):
Man.
Tell me about this TED Talk,man, I heard you got it.
Looks like you got up there.
Where was that?
Was it a TEDx or a TED Talk?
It was a TEDx, nice.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
I went and did this kind of like veterans retreat
over the summer in 18, and we'rejust sitting around the fire.
I was still in the military atthe time, but I was getting in
the med board process and I justmentioned, you know, someday
I'd like to do a TEDx talk.
Just it's a goal, right?
A couple months later I'm outand one of the guys sitting
(41:00):
around the fire another GreenBeret says hey, man, I just had
to drop out of the TEDx event.
And they said asked if I couldfill it with another green beret
says hey, man, I just had todrop out of the tedx event, uh,
and they said asked if I couldfill it with another green beret
.
It's in three weeks.
Can you do it absolutely?
Speaker 1 (41:12):
absolutely I can do it.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Attitude man heck yeah, I can do that man I had
five single lines on a sheet, ona little note card paper, as my
outline.
That's all I I had and I said,yep, I can do it.
So I wrote the whole thing,memorized it and performed it
all in three weeks atMississippi State University.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
Good for you, man.
What was your subject?
What did you speak on TBI?
Speaker 2 (41:38):
resilience.
I just told my story.
I figured it would be theeasiest to memorize.
It was tough.
I figured it would be theeasiest to memorize.
It was tough.
I didn't know even how, becauseeverybody afterwards is like,
man, that's really cool and youknow, it just fell in my lap and
I just did it.
But looking back, I'm like thatwas really cool, like I got to
(42:00):
record a TEDx talk and I canalways put that up there.
But I go back and listen to itand I, I, if I did it now, I
would just have a different tone.
I'm a lot more relaxed, I'm alot more deliberate in what I
say.
But then you could just hearhow angry I was, that I was out
of the military.
You just hear it in my voice.
(42:21):
So it would be just a littlebit different today.
But I listened to it the otherday and I'm like got like
goosebumps.
I'm like I'm fired up right now.
God damn.
Speaker 1 (42:31):
Well, I'm here to tell you I've been retired 24
years and I still miss it, man,dream about it.
I miss the guys.
Um, you know it's uh, it's notthat.
You know I, I, you know I gotfriends, you know I and I got
some old buddies, man, I catchup with.
But that rapport it's.
(42:53):
You know, once you'veexperienced it it's hard to
build back up, but that's youknow.
The fact that you guys arereaching out and you're trying
to reach our veteran populationis amazing, because so many guys
got to understand that theyhave to talk, they have to speak
up, they have to let peopleknow that they're hurting,
because there is help, there ishope.
I mean, when it comes down totreating the brain.
Now, since my son passed awayjust four and a half years ago,
(43:15):
there are so many ways to treatthe brain that nobody even heard
of.
I mean, there's a revolution ofnon-pharmaceutical brain health
coming our way that can notonly help our guys in the
military you know brainoptimization and all that stuff
but can help them when they getout.
So thank you so much forspeaking up, speaking out.
We need more guys like you.
(43:37):
So, as we close, man, tellpeople what's coming up next for
Nicholas Allen.
Tell us what's going on, whatare you doing, what are you
going to do next?
And then how do people find youfor you?
Your foundation, your podcast,and then the Green Beret
Foundation.
Pump your chest, man, what yougot All right, I am Nicholas
Allen.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
Everything right now is circled around lesser known
operators.
You can find us on Instagram atlesser known operators, that's
it.
I just want to build that up.
And at the base of the show is,if you were a special
operations veteran no matter howbig the show gets or how
popular I get and what kind ofshow I'm doing at the time if
(44:20):
you get out and you send me amessage and you want to come on
the show, you will get on.
We will book an episode.
We will 100% record an episode.
I promise that that is the baseof the show and we'll come on.
You can come on and talk aboutwhatever you want.
That's what I want it to be forfor special operations veterans
to have a place they can cometalk and I'll talk to you about
(44:41):
whatever the fuck you want totalk about.
If you want to talk about yourwar stories or you want to talk
about your new business or yourbook or whatever, and you have a
hard time talking aboutyourself, I'll do it for you.
Speaker 1 (44:51):
So that's it All right.
Hey, I'll come on your show man, let's go.
I'll be a lesser known operatorman, I am.
Speaker 2 (45:00):
I'd love to have you on the show.
I do to have you on the show.
I do long episodes, man.
I do two and a half three hourepisodes and people like where'd
the time go?
Speaker 1 (45:09):
it's like see, it's fun when you uh the shit that I,
my journey is god's.
God has been all over this dudeman.
I can't even it's.
It's crazy.
But uh, the big thing is, Idon't want to go on for me, I
want to go on.
I made so many mistakes, I havebeen so many places where
people have not been in lifethat I've got just some
(45:33):
well-earned wisdom that I liketo pass on.
It ain't about me, it's neverabout me anymore.
It's about the Lord and thefact that there is a I have and
I have blown myself up.
I've been, you know.
It's just that I like helpingothers.
I gave a talk at 7 SpecialForces Group about working for
yourself, working for the man,and they loved it.
(45:54):
Man, it's like look, you don'tneed to be a defense contractor,
bro, you can run anything.
You know.
Pick a business, set of tittybars, gas stations, chinese food
you can run this.
You can be successful.
You don't, you know.
And we find out that a lot ofour young men coming out of
special forces and women, eventhough they've been in combat or
they've been through the worsttraining that the Army can throw
(46:16):
at them, they don't have theconfidence to step out and be an
entrepreneur and it is killingthis country because all these
unbelievable business leadersare not business leaders and I
think that can be changed.
I've you know, I've been there.
I'm on my eighth company, bro.
I mean, I've you know, I've, I,uh, and, and there's so much
there and it's you know, it's sorewarding working for yourself
(46:40):
and and I've blown them up too.
Don't worry, I've gotmulti-million dollar mistakes
that have, you know that,cauterize me to this day.
But anyways, enough about me.
But if you'd like to, you knowlove to come on and share,
because you know that's aservice and I do believe that
what you're doing back to youSorry about my diatribe there
it's your selfless service, dude, it's the fact that you're out
(47:06):
there helping others and that'sa virtue and it's a gift to this
world.
So keep on doing it, man.
It's a amazing, it's amazinggift.
Speaker 2 (47:11):
I fucked up a lot, you know like I fucked up a lot
and I just, and when I couldn'tbe in group anymore, I don't,
didn't have anything I wanted todo, and now I found this and
that's all I want to do.
It's all I think about ishelping special operations, guys
or gals and whatever they need,even if it's just my show or my
(47:33):
funny memes or my reels or likemy fitness stuff, like if it
inspires you just a little bit,and then that makes me feel so
good.
Or you're just commenting on mystuff, or it is nothing, or you
don't even follow me and youjust see it one time you go.
Oh, that's awesome.
It's just to be the example, toget people to get out of their
(47:53):
minds that they're silentprofessionals, not quiet
professionals.
You can do things tactfully.
If you don't think you need totalk about your experiences and
how awesome you are, then shutthe fuck up, get out of your
head and speak up and be proudof your accomplishments, and if
they can see me doing that, thenhopefully I'm an example for
them to do the same.
Speaker 1 (48:12):
I despise that quiet professionals term I cost us.
When that came out, you know, Idon't know where, I don't know
what rank I was.
I think I was in E7.
I'm like that stinks.
We're not supposed to be quietprofessionals, we're supposed to
be loud.
Green berets, dude man.
I mean, come on, let's go messit up.
You know it was quiet.
I always thought that was anofficer term man.
(48:33):
It's probably still on in OER.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
It's probably still on some of those OERs.
That's what we got promoted onthat one.
Speaker 1 (48:40):
But, nick, hey, thanks so much for coming on the
show man.
Your insight's been awesome.
Your service to the communityis great.
Dude, I can't thank you enoughand I wish you all the best on
your show man.
You keep that thing going.
Books another great episode,Thanks to Nick Allen, the Green
Beret Foundation coming up Justbecause I helped start it.
Man, I love the Green BeretFoundation.
Man, I've got to get back totouching them.
Don't forget free book, theonly book written by me for you
(49:05):
to not expose your kids tocontact sports.
We've got the book.
We've got the summit the onlybut yet second summit on
repetitive brain trauma is goingto be here in Tampa, hosted by
the Mac Park Foundation,September 2nd and 3rd.
And go to the Google and Applestore for our Head Smart app
(49:26):
Download on the phone.
It's the best concussionawareness app out there.
In fact, it's the only app outthere with information on
repetitive head impacts and howthey're impacting the people
that you love, and it comes witha free copy of the book Book,
book, book, book, book.
All right.
So, anyways, take care ofyourselves, Take care of the
people you love.
God bless you all and take careof those brains.
You only got one and it'severything that you're going to
(49:49):
be no-transcript.
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